I realize that there is great danger in my spiritual life deteriorating into spiritual narcissism, being about myself, for myself and within myself. I cannot look at my prayer time as simply a feel-good moments of peace and quiet by myself and for myself. The love I profess for others cannot just remain a romantic ideal I enjoy mulling over and over again in my mind. I cannot read the scriptures just for the intellectual pleasure it brings me but I should allow it to change my life and my behavior and actions.
True love is unconditional and unconditional love is not just an intellectual affirmation of a truth. Truth is the congruence between what is real and what is in my mind. For my love to be true, I must express it in reality; I must make it real through my actions. Thus, love without action is like sounding gong – making a lot of noise but never efficacious. I cannot simply say to someone: “I love you and I will pray for you.” Telling someone you love them is important. It is an affirmation. Praying for someone is also important. I affirm before the Lord my concern for another person. But if my love and prayer stop there, not translated into tangible action, they become just like wisps of smoke floating hazily in the air and are soon gone.
I must believe that love and prayer expressed through actions become heroic. Even the simplest acts, such as doing little acts of service like driving the kids to school or cleaning the house or doing the laundry or preparing a meal, take on heroic proportions when done out of love, and this love-doing done with the consciousness of God’s involvement and presence in such simple and ordinary actions. Then, my love and prayers are for myself nor by myself nor within myself. But my actions become acts of love and prayer for others, about others and with others.
Anabelle would usually gargle with brine whenever she has a sore throat. She was doing that the other day by the kitchen sink with Jonathan nearby busy at his iPad. At the second gargling, Jonathan suddenly ran upstairs to get his Mommy, saying: “Mommy, Mommy, come down quickly. Lola is throwing up.” Such is love and concern translated into effective action.
After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, ‘Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.
John 13:1-8,12-15